The Sunday Times & Norwegian Air

Whilst struggling from a series of strikes (see in this issue ), the essentially Oslo based carrier Norwegian Air is pushing ahead with plans to acquire a British Air Operators Certificate (AOC) according to the Sunday Times.  By establishing a small office in Dublin it has come inside the EU of which Norway is not a member but has certain trading rights including air transport.

The airline is already embroiled in a dispute with the US pilot unions over its European flights to United States, the Americans claiming Norwegian is flouting employment laws by using pilots and cabin crew from Thailand.  From Gatwick it operates limited services to Newark New York, Ft Lauderdale and Los Angeles using the ‘low cost’ model.  In Economy you pay for everything on board.

Last month the airline slumped to a worse than expected annual loss. 

Established in 1993 today Norwegian operates 96 aircraft including seven Dreamliner’s and in 2014 flew 24m passengers.  Its success has been put down to the quality of service (including free w-fi) and a policy of cherry picking bases often with limited but high profile services.  Virgin Atlantic provided training and helped with crewing during the 787 start-up.   www.norwegian.com

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